Landstuhl CrossFit

The following quote comes from an article by Jimmy Moore (who by the way lost 170lbs in 10months by adopting a low-carb diet) after interviewing Dr. William Davis, the cardiologist who publicly pushes low-carb living for better heart health in his Heart Scan Blog. Jimmy Moore shared how Dr. Davis personally fared during his trial of the low-fat high carb Ornish diet on Wellsphere:

Here’s what his Ornish diet looked like:

• Consumed less than 10% of his calories as fat
• Eliminated all fish, meats, vegetable oils, and nuts
• Ate vegetables and fruits
• Increased whole grain consumption
• Consumed Ornish-recommended recipes
• Ran five miles daily
• Avoided sugary candy and fruit juice

This “healthy” diet is supposed to help improve weight and health so that you never have to worry about heart disease, right? Well, let’s see what happened to Dr. Davis:

• Gained 31 pounds
• Developed protruding belly (this study confirms it happens)
• HDL fell to 28 mg/dl
• Triglycerides vaulted to 336 mg/dl
• LDL cholesterol particle size was the small dangerous kind
• In a strange mental fog by the afternoon
• Constantly tired and cranky
• Experienced sudden surges of anger and frustration over small stuff
• Needed excessive amounts of coffee to function

Over the years of treating patients, Dr. Davis has seen similar symptoms happen to other Ornish low-fat dieters, too. Recent research suggests the high-carb, low-fat approach is ineffective for people who are insulin resistant, will raise your blood pressure, and could actually lead to breast cancer (here’s Atkins’ response to that study), brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, kidney cancer, and prostate cancer, among other cancers.

I really enjoyed Dr. William Davis’ latest post. He interviewed a gynecologist who now advocates a low-carb diet not just for health but to improve fertility. Here is Dr. Michael Fox:

Our focus has been to remain as a broad practice where we individualize care and attempt in every case to achieve pregnancy short of IVF [in vitro fertilization]. Five years ago, as more information regarding Polycystic Ovarian Disease or Syndrome (PCOD/S) and its relationship to insulin resistance (high insulin levels) was emerging, we had a simple realization. As we’ve known for some time, insulin stimulates excess male hormone levels in the ovary, which disrupts ovulation and fertility. Then our job was to lower or virtually eliminate high insulin levels. Again, in simple fashion, we looked at physiology and realized that insulin is released only in response to dietary carbohydrates. Thus, elimination of carbohydrates should resolve the problem. This, in fact, is the effect that we have seen.

In our previous approaches to PCOD, we utilized oral ovulation medicines generating pregnancy rates in the 40% range overall. Now, with the nutritional approach, for those patients that follow our recommendations, our pregnancy rates are over 90%! This has dramatically reduced the need for in vitro fertilization in these patients.

To extend this idea further, we first started with relative low-carbohydrate diets, such as the South Beach diet, but quickly realized this didn’t produce a metabolic effect. Over time, it has borne out that only the very low-carbohydrate diet (VLCD) approach produces significant metabolic change. Our impression then was that the current U.S. nutritional exposure probably increases insulin levels and that this has a detrimental effect on fertility.

To counter this effect, we now recommend the VLCD to all fertility patients and their spouses. The pregnancy rates do seem much better overall, as well as seeing a reduction in miscarriage rates. For the first time at our national meeting last year, there were three articles that showed improved pregnancy rates in patients without PCOD or insulin resistance in IVF when Glucophage was used. This drug decreases insulin. This supports the idea that our entire population is subjected to fertility-reducing high-carbohydrate diet.

When asked by Dr. Davis if he’d seen any other changes in his patients on the very low carb diet he prescribes, Dr. Fox replies:

Yes. All metabolic parameters, as well as many common complaints, improve. Cholesterol and triglyceride levels improve, while “good” HDL cholesterol levels increase. Weight drops at a pace of 12 lbs per month very steadily and we have many many patients who have experienced 50lb wt loss. Blood pressure decreases steadily in these patients and we are often able to get them off of cholesterol and blood pressure medicines. Common symptoms such as anxiety, sleep disturbances, decreased energy, migraine headaches and depression all dramatically improve. Again we can often get patients off depression and migraine suppression medications. So this approach helps in a multitude of areas.

Dr. Fox’s biggest challenge? Pushing fat on his patients. No surprise to me – this has been my biggest challenge with you guys too!!

People can wrap themselves around protein and vegetables, but they totally miss the high-fat (animal fat) part of the conversation. We have to really push that aspect. In regards to dairy, we allow for non-processed (raw) cheeses and minimal milk. An alternative is to mix about 4 oz whole milk with 4 oz of heavy whipping and 4 oz of water to create a “milk” with less sugar. Similarly, shakes and smoothies can be made with heavy whipping cream with pure whey protein powder added to create a liquid meal for those who “don’t have time” to cook.

Please read the total interview, and especially if you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant. Dr. Fox has observed radically lowered complaints from his patients of morning sickness, food cravings, moodiness, and anxiety. I had a friend ask me if the paleo diet was safe for her to adopt while breastfeeding. After giving my standard precautionary statement about not being a nutritionist, I told her I personally felt there was nothing more safe. [edit: and since I wrote this post, here's another inspiring testimonial at Whole 9 about a lady diagnosed with infertility due to Stage IX endometriosis. She attributes her pregnancy and subsequent birth of twins "most notably" to her adoption of the Whole 30 paleo program.]
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Last I checked on the sign-up board, there are 11 people at LCCF doing the 30-day paleo challenge – please feel free to comment and share your first week’s experiences with everyone (positive and negative). I can’t believe how much Drake has leaned out – have you seen him lately?